Archive for the ‘Utah Museum of Fine Arts’ tag

You had to give Eddie Miller a lot of credit for guts. He was trying to upstage one of Bonneville’s most storied record breakers, Ab Jenkins’s modified 1935 Duesenberg SJ that became famous as the Mormon Meteor. Miller never actually built the car he envisioned, but he imparted enough information so that his son, Eddie Jr., could and did complete it.

The gorgeous, open-wheeled coupe is based around a tubular frame that Eddie Jr. built himself and then drilled for wisp-like lightness. It ran a best of 156 MPH at Bonneville before coming into the ownership of Don Ferguson, and later, his son. The restored lakester, which Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance showgoers got to see a couple of years ago, will this week head to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts’s Speed: The Art of the Performance Automobile exhibit, taking the place of the Mormon Meteor, which will soon travel to the Glenmoor Gathering. Ab Jenkins fans will still be able to get their fix at the museum: His later car, the Mormon Meteor III, which still holds the most long-distance records in Bonneville history, will remain with the exhibit.

Speed: The Art of the Performance Automobile will run through September 17. For more information, visit SpeedUMFA.com.